If you were a chief executive of Southwest Airlines, in need of a new strategic vision, which course of action would you choose and why in terms of a "cost leadership" or a "differentiated" business strategy? Use table 5.1 in the text as a foundation for

Chapter 6: Video Case: Trek: Building Better Bikes through Organizational Buying

1. The buying center at Trek is responsible for finding the best suppliers and vendors for the organizations purchases. Roles include purchasing manager, buyers who identify domestic and international sources of materials and components and representatives from research and development production and quality control. Together the product managers and the buying center make informed decisions on the selected new supplier at Trek, with the purchasing manager with the last decision.

2. Criteria for new and existing suppliers include quality, delivery, capability, price and the environmental impact. Existing suppliers may also receive scores on the number of defects in a large quantity or whether their orders have come in on time or not. At Trek, they use “white paper” to record information about potential and existing suppliers. Basically, it is a sheet that managers can look at that shows issues and benefits related to working with these people. Trek makes a big effort to develop long term relationships with their suppliers so that they can be partners with them as they contribute to Trek’s overall success as well as their partner’s success.

References

Kerin, R. A., Hartley, S. W., & Rudelius, W. (2015). Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill

Education.